The health reform legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by the President will make health care work for our country by lowering costs for Americans and once and for all level the playing field between American families and insurance companies.

Here are the immediate benefits that this new law will provide American consumers this year:

• Prohibits pre-existing condition exclusions for children in all new plans;

• Prohibits dropping people from coverage when they get sick in all individual plans;

• Lowers seniors prescription drug prices by beginning to close the donut hole;

• Offers tax credits to small businesses to purchase coverage;

• Eliminates lifetime limits and restrictive annual limits on benefits in all plans;

• Requires plans to cover an enrollee's dependent children until age 26;

• Requires new plans to cover preventive services and immunizations;

• Ensures consumers have access to an effective internal and external appeals process to appeal new insurance plan decisions;

• Offers uninsured Americans with pre-existing conditions the choice of enrolling in insurance provided through a temporary high-risk pool;

• Requires premium rebates to enrollees from insurers with high administrative expenditures and require public disclosure of the percent of premiums applied to overhead costs.

Click here to see NJPIRG's statement on America's new health reform law.